Nothing Like the Movies

by Isaac FederspielStudent Reporter

About once or twice a month Dustin Hackbarth watches "Top Gun," which has been his favorite movie for as long as he can remember. It’s a solitary experience for Hackbarth, and even though he’s watched it countless times, he still tears up when Goose dies. The opening scene is what really hooks him into the movie.

They’re playing "Highway to the Danger Zone" and you got the aircraft on top of the aircraft carrier that’s ready to take off. The teamwork, the coordination, just going along with the excitement and the adrenaline. And the thrill of being catapulted off an aircraft.

Watching it reminds him of when he was young, before he graduated high school, before he attended college, before he joined the Army and before he learned that war is nothing like the movies.